Government prioritizes campaign against school bullying in New YearThe 14-year-old boy who killed himself in Gwangju last week had been bullied by his peers, leading the government to announce on the first working day of the New Year that it has given top priority to dealing with school bullying.According to Gwangju police, three students had beaten him, robbed him of money and sent him threatening text messages. His friends told police that the boy had been hit by three of his classmates 29 tim

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2012

Ministry strengthens laws against school violencePolice said Monday that the 14-year-old boy who killed himself in Gwangju last week had been bullied by his peers, leading the government to announce on the first working day of the New Year that it has given top priority to dealing with school bullying.Police also confirmed that three students had beaten him, robbed him of money and sent him threatening text messages.His friends told police that the boy had been hit by three of his classmates 29

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2012

The government has set aside more funds for state scholarships to ease the heavy college tuition burden, allowing college students to receive loans without having to repay them before finding employment, the Education Ministry said Monday.Increased tuition subsidies will be offered to college students through the 2012 national budget as the government added 250 billion won ($216 million) to the previous 1.5 trillion won, the ministry said. The extra subsidies are expected to decrease nominal col

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2012

Ministry seeks to strengthen laws against school violencePolice said Monday that the 14-year-old boy who killed himself in Gwangju last week had been bullied by his peers.They also confirmed that three students had beaten him, robbed him of money and sent him threatening text messages.His friends told police that the boy had been hit by three of his classmates 29 times, Gwangju Police Station said.The suicide came a week after another 14-year-old boy in Daegu jumped to his death after bullying b

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2012

A 14-year-old student at a middle school in the southwestern city of Gwangju apparently killed himself after being bullied by his peers, adding to the recent spate of bullying-related suicides.The Gwangju Police said Friday that the boy was found hanging from a corridor railing in his apartment building on Thursday morning. They found no suicide note. The police investigation took statements from his friends and father that he had been harassed by one of his classmates. Two of his friends told p

Social Affairs Dec. 30, 2011

Four out of five foreign teenagers who come to Korea to live with their foreign mothers or fathers when they remarry Korean spouses are not attending school, according to research by a think tank on Friday. There are a total of 875 foreign teenagers living in Seoul, but their school attendance rate is only 21.7 percent, the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family said in a report. The number of foreigners under the age of 21 registered with the immigration office is 5,726, and 34 percent of them ar

Social Affairs Dec. 30, 2011

The Education Ministry on Thursday listed 36 universities to face sanctions for poor management of international students. The move aims to clamp down on increases in foreign student enrollment for financial benefit and lax management, which has led to more illegal immigrant students here. The ministry conducted a four-month inquiry into 347 schools ― 201 four-year universities and 146 vocational colleges ― to assess how well they manage foreign students. Of the 36 schools, 17 will face restrict

Social Affairs Dec. 29, 2011

A recent spate of student suicides has drawn attention to school bullying, with some cases hushed up to save schools’ reputations, leading victims to distrust their schools and teachers. Reported cases of bullying at schools sharply increased last year from 5,606 in 2009 to 7,823 last year, although the number had fallen by about 3,000 between 2008 and 2009, according to a national survey. According to the Teenage Violence Prevention Center, 14,939 students have asked for help with bullying this

Social Affairs Dec. 27, 2011

Ministry measures call for dispatch of counselors, strengthening monitorsThe recent suicides of school bullying victims in Daegu have shocked the nation, especially since their parents and teachers didn’t even know what they had been going through. Criticism has mounted over schools’ negligence, and parents and education experts have called for measures to prevent school violence. A 14-year-old, who leapt to his death last week, left a suicide note detailing the abuse he suffered. The boy surnam

Social Affairs Dec. 26, 2011

Four out of 10 adult Seoul residents were unmarried last year, and the trend of marrying later in life has led to more single-member households.According to statistics compiled by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the number of singles aged 25 to 49 in the capital has surged seven-fold from 215,184 in 1970 to 1,586,569 in 2010. The proportion of singles in the age group increased from 11.9 percent to 37.9 percent over the cited period.As more adults get married later in life, the average age fo

Social Affairs Dec. 26, 2011

Ministry measures call for dispatch of counselors, strengthening monitorsThe recent suicides of school bullying victims in Daegu have shocked the nation, especially since their parents and teachers didn’t even notice what they had been going through. Criticism has mounted over schools’ negligence and prevention of school violence has been called for by parents and education experts. A 14-year-old, who leapt to his death last week, left a suicide note detailing the abuse he suffered. The boy, sur

Social Affairs Dec. 26, 2011

Air in Seoul has been as clean as that on the resort island of Jeju for 202 days this year, with the dust level falling to the lowest in about a decade, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Sunday.The annual average dust particle concentration in the air was 47 micrograms per cubic meter this year, the lowest since 1995 when the city started to measure the dust level in the air. In 1995, the dust concentration in the air was 78 micrograms. The number of days as clean as in Jeju, that is 45 mic

Social Affairs Dec. 25, 2011

Hundreds of college students will get a chance to receive internships abroad, as part of a government program to help them develop global mindsets and land jobs after graduation, the Education Ministry said Sunday. Under the global internship program launched in 2005, the ministry will select 850 college students ― 250 from four-year universities and 600 from community colleges ― as 2012 overseas interns to be sent to English-speaking countries such as the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia, a

Social Affairs Dec. 25, 2011

Ministry to tighten restructuring to weed out underperforming schoolsUniversities found to have committed admission scams and academic irregularities such as hiring unqualified faculty or giving undeserved grades will face a cut of up to 10 percent in their freshmen enrollment, the Education Ministry said Sunday. Schools committing irregularities will face penalties including bans on freshmen recruitment in the first stage and cuts in their number in the second stage, according to a revised law

Social Affairs Dec. 25, 2011